The present invention relates in general to fishing reels for storing, retrieving and controlling the withdraw of fishing line from the fishing reel. More particularly, the present invention relates to reels used in fly fishing and having a drag mechanism for restricting the withdraw of fishing line from the fishing reel and a manual brake mechanism for supplementing the restrictive force of the drag mechanism.
The prior art fly fishing reels which have incorporated a pre-settable drag mechanism have incorporated various pressure plate/slip clutch assemblies between the winding crank and various elements of the drive mechanism which rotates the line spool, exemplary of which is Clark, U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,268. Other prior art references have utilized drag mechanism which act upon the end of a line spool or the side flange of a line spool or, as shown in Sarah, U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,976, between a line spool end surface and the winding crank itself.
These prior art drag mechanisms which have utilized various portions of the line spool as an element of the drag mechanism have been found to be only marginally satisfactory in those applications where the fishing reel is exposed to substantial load, such as in fishing for salmon and other large fish, due to the potential for distortion of the line spool itself or the mis-alignment of the line spool with respect to the reel frame caused by the application of drag forces directly to the line spool.
Prior art manual brake mechanisms which are manually operated to restrict rotation of the line spool and make withdraw from the line spool more difficult have incorporated brake elements which act upon spool collars when the braking device is rocked upon a reel cross member, as shown in Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 2,725,201 or have incorporated brake elements which act upon the spool end surfaces, between the spool end surface and the outer reel housing or upon the surface of the coiled line wrapped about the line spool. These prior art references tend to apply the braking force asymmetrically to the line spool which tends to force the line spool out of alignment with respect to the reel frame or, in those case were the braking force is applied directly to the surface of the coiled line wrapped about the line spool, result in fraying of the fishing line and an attendant reduction in its strenght.
A further disadvantage of the prior art attempts to provide a pre-settable drag mechanism and a manually operable brake mechanism for supplementing the drag mechanism have utilized a separate actuator for each of the mechanisms. Thus, the fisherman is unable to manipulate both the drag mechanism and the manual brake mechanism at the same time due to the primary requirement of grasping the fishing rod with at least one hand.